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Social identities and friendships: A longitudinal study of support for social identities
Abstract
This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that relationship-specific support for social identities (e.g., student, athlete, romantic partner) would predict levels of closeness and contact in college students' friendships. One hundred first-year college students completed measures of closeness, contact, and support for identities, pertaining to three new, same-sex friendships. During their sophomore year, 86 of the participants provided follow-up information about each friendship. Analyses conducted across participants and across friendships of the same participants indicated that students were more likely to maintain closeness and contact with friends who provided higher levels of support for identities. Additionally, in several analyses, support for identities predicted closeness and contact even after controlling for general relationship-specific support. Results suggest that support for social identities is a distinct type of social support with consequences for interpersonal relationships.
... We define social identity support (or, simply, identity support) as the degree to which individuals believe that another person understands, accepts, or provides instrumental support for valued social identities (Weisz & Wood, 2000). Social identities are aspects of self-definition related to social groups, categories, and roles (Deaux, 1992(Deaux, , 1993. ...
... 830). However, identity support differs conceptually from more general social support because it reflects more specific forms of understanding and help concerning identity-related self-perceptions, obligations, and goals (Weisz & Wood, 2000). The study reported here tested whether identity support within friendships predicted friendship outcomes independent of the level of general, relationship-specific support people thought they received from friends. ...
... This article reports findings from a 4-year longitudinal study of college students' same-sex friendships. Data from the first 2 years of the study indicated that identity support was positively correlated with ratings of relationship closeness measured at the same time point, even after controlling for general relationship-specific social support as measured by Pierce's (1994) Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI) support scale (Weisz & Wood, 2000). Initial ratings of identity support also predicted levels of closeness with a friend 1 year later, after controlling for initial levels of closeness and QRI support. ...
This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that social identity support would predict the long-term status of first-year college friendships. Social identity support refers to perceived support for valued aspects of the self that are related to identification with social groups, categories, and roles. First-year undergraduates (N = 100) reported levels of closeness, contact, general support, and social identity support for new same-sex friendships. Logistic regression analyses indicated, as expected, that social identity support predicted whether or not a new friend would be a best friend 4 years later, after controlling for initial levels of closeness, contact, and general relationship-specific social support. Social identity support, however, did not predict status as a mere friend at follow-up. The results regarding best friend status suggest that social identity support may be a unique form of social support that contributes to the development of close relationships.
... This attraction facilitates the formation of close friendships between gay men and straight women with these traits, possibly reinforcing these traits at the same time. Because of these friendships, these women develop supported social identity (Weisz & Wood, 2000) as "babaeng bakla". These friendships and the babaeng bakla social identity exist within gay culture. ...
In Philippine culture, babaeng bakla refers to women who associate with and develop close friendships with gay men and participate in gay cultural activities. This paper discusses a research investigation that examines the "babaeng bakla" phenomenon in the Philippines from the perspective of personality trait psychology. Using both imported and indigenous personality measures, we tested the hypothesis that women who are "babaeng bakla" might differ from other women along certain trait dimensions. Based on our findings, we developed a tentative model which suggests that Filipino women with certain personality characteristics form a reciprocal attraction with gay men. This leads them to develop close friendships with gay men and in turn fashion a "babaeng bakla" identity within Filipino gay culture. Women who form close friendships with gay men and participate in gay cultural activities — sometimes referred to in Western gay culture as "fag hags," and in the Philippines as "babaeng bakla" — are often depicted in popular representations as having particular characteristics, or traits, that set them apart from other women. These range from stereotypes of "fag hag" women as being overly emotional, unstable, and having low self-esteem (Bartlett et al., 2009), to perceptions of Filipino celebrities who are identified as "babaeng bakla" as having the capacity for campy humor as well as katarayan
... 361). These connections are sought through associations that support their social identity like ethnicity, social roles (athletes), membership in organizations (sorority) (Weisz & Wood, 2000), 'social smoking' (Waters, Harris, Hall, Nazir & Waigandt, 2006), or alcohol use (Borsari & Carey, 2006). According to Liu (2007) in today's text-heavy online world, identity expression and establishing social links is through creating a social network profile of oneself on online networks. ...
Mapping and assessing social networks and the quality of their social support is a valuable intervention strategy for social workers. These networks have now spread onto the digital realm in the form of Online Social Networks (OSNs). This study investigated the nature of social support provided by such networks to their users in a rural mid-South University (USA) and explored parallels with the current understanding of social support in conventional social networks. A web-based survey administered to college students revealed that users of these online networks were predominantly undergraduate first year students, female, single, unemployed and from a variety of academic disciplines. The examination of the components of OSNs appears to mirror those of offline networks. They also seem to complement the effects of each other while contributing to an individual's support system. The paper concludes with critical implications of such online social networking for University students and social workers in practice and education.
This study investigated the influence of social support and self-verification on loneliness, depression, and stress among 477 college students. The authors propose and test a theoretical model using structural equation modeling. The results indicated empirical support for the model, with self-verification mediating the relation between social support and health outcomes. The results have implications for social support and self-verification research, which are discussed along with directions for future research and limitations of the study.
Destination marketers seek to capitalize on sport by appealing to the sport's subculture and by bundling sport with other tourism opportunities. The potential contributions of specially constructed sport opportunities are examined by exploring the contributions that a park devoted to the heritage and practice of tae kwon do can make to American tae kwon do practitioners' interests and intent for travel to Korea. Nine elements were studied using conjoint analysis: price, three park features (tae kwon do competition, tae kwon do cultural heritage and tae kwon do master classes), three typical tours (a tour of Seoul, a modern history tour, and a tour to experience traditional Korean culture), and two physical activities (a local sports package and participation in another traditional Korean martial art). Together, the three opportunities at Tae Kwon Do Park accounted for almost one-third of the aggregate sample's utility for a trip to Korea. Cluster analysis identified four segments: Heritage Seekers, Competitive Tourists, Culturally Conscious Competitors, and Price Sensitives. Opportunities provided by Tae Kwon Do Park were more than sufficient to overcome the negative utility associated with price for all but the Price Sensitives, and all four segments valued some tourism opportunities beyond tae kwon do. However, the mix of preferred activities and tours varied significantly by segment. Segment was predicted by age, a desire to learn about Korea, a desire to master tae kwon do, years of involvement in tae kwon do, role in tae kwon do and level of belt. The likelihood of purchasing a trip to Korea rose with higher levels of belt and as social identity rose, but was lower when financial constraints or knowledge and interest constraints rose. Segment moderated the effect of ethnicity and social motivation on the likelihood of travel to Korea. It is concluded that involvement in a sport can be leveraged to promote tourism to a destination when the destination has a meaningful association with the sport.
Describes the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) and 4 empirical studies employing it. The SSQ yields scores for (a) perceived number of social supports and (b) satisfaction with social support that is available. Three studies (N = 1,224 college students) dealt with the SSQ's psychometric properties, its correlations with measures of personality and adjustment, and the relation of the SSQ to positive and negative life changes. The 4th study (40 Ss) was an investigation of the relation between social support and persistence in working on a complex, frustrating task. The research reported suggests that the SSQ is a reliable instrument and that social support is (a) more strongly related to positive than negative life changes, (b) more related in a negative direction to psychological discomfort among women than men, and (c) an asset in enabling a person to persist at a task under frustrating conditions. Clinical implications are discussed. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
We propose that because self-concepts allow people to predict (and thus control) the responses of others, people want to find support for their self-concepts. They accordingly gravitate toward relationship partners who see them as they see themselves. For people with negative self-views, this means embracing relationship partners who derogate them. Our findings confirmed this reasoning. Just as persons with positive self-concepts were more committed to spouses who thought well of them than to spouses who thought poorly of them, persons with negative self-concepts were more committed to spouses who thought poorly of them than to spouses who thought well of them.
Social identity theory as developed by Tajfel and Turner argues that there are two distinct aspects of the self-concept: personal identity and social identity (in American terminology, collective identity). Although many self-esteem measures are available in the literature, they allfocus on individuals'evaluation of their personal identity, whether in private or interpersonal domains. No scale currently exists that assesses the positivity of one's social, or collective, identity. A scale was constructed to assess individual differences in collective, rather than personal, self-esteem, with four subscales (Membership esteem, Public collective self-esteem, Private collective self-esteem, and Importance to Identity). Evidence for reliability and validity of the scale was provided by three studies, suggesting that the scale can be a useful research tool. Implications for research and social identity theory are discussed.
We report two studies investigating the psychometric properties and construct validity of the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI), a self-report measure of support, conflict, and depth in specific family and peer relationships. Study 1 showed that the QRI scales possess high internal consistency, are stable across a period of 1 year, show moderate agreement between participants' perceptions of the same relationship, and predict depressive symptoms beyond the contribution made by measures of general perceived support. In Study 2, adult children's and their mothers' QRI scales assessing the quality of their relationship with one another, but not with other family members or friends, predicted observers' global judgements of their behavior as they discussed a current source of conflict in their relationship. These studies suggest the reliability and construct validity of the QRI scales as measures of the quality of specific relationships. The implications of these results for the conceptualization and assessment of personal relationships are discussed.
It was hypothesized that being outperformed on a task that is relevant to one's self-definition is threatening to self-esteem, and that this threat is greater when one is outperformed by a friend rather than by a stranger. When another's performance threatens self-esteem, persons will be less likely to help the other by making the task easy. To test these hypotheses, 52 friendship pairs participated with strangers in a word identification task described either as a measure of important skills (high relevance) or as a game (low relevance). Participants chose clues for both a friend and a stranger to use in identifying target words. As predicted, they gave harder clues under high-relevance than under low-relevance conditions. Moreover, they gave harder clues to strangers than to friends under low-relevance conditions, but gave harder clues to friends than to strangers under high-relevance conditions.
In the last several years, we have been interested in the role social supports play in protecting people from the pathogenic effects of stress. By social supports, we scan the resources that are provided by other persons (cf. Cohen & Syme, 1985). Although others have investigated and in some cases found evidence for a “buffering” hypothesis—that social support protects persons from the pathogenic effects of stress but is relatively unimportant for unexposed individuals, there are difficulties in interpreting this literature. First, there are almost as many measures of social suppport as there are studies. Hence it is difficult to compare studies and to determine why support operates as a stress buffer in some cases, but not in others. Second, in the vast majority of work, support measures are used without regard to their psychometric properties or their appropriateness for the question under study. For example, studies using measures assessing the structure of social networks (e.g, how many friends do you have?) are seldom distinguished from those addressing the functions that networks might serve (e.g., do you have someone you can talk to about personal problems?). In fact, in many cases, structural and functional items are thrown together into single support indices resulting in scores that have little conceptual meaning.